Ismailimail presents its second thematic post in celebration of the opening of the Aga Khan Museum. We bring into focus Prince Sadruddin’s and Princess Catherine’s contributions.

I should like to give particular thanks to Princess Catherine Aga Khan, the widow of my late uncle, Prince Sadruddin. Not only has the collection that she and my uncle formed over the years constituted the nucleus of the Museum’s collections today, but she has allowed us to repeat, within the Museum, an entire room from their house in Geneva, which we call the Bellerive room, and which is a space I personally find as poetic as it is illuminating. I must also thank my brother and all those who have lent or given works of art to enlarge and expand our collections.

… Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, passed away, and his widow, Princess Catherine, invited me to become the owner of their remarkable Islamic art collection … I was able to join my late uncle’s collection with part of the collection that I had assembled for The Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, and with some of my personal objects. But where should this assembled collection then be situated? After numerous discussions with many thoughtful people, the decision was made to build a museum on the very site that had been selected originally for the Ismaili Centre.

“Prince Sadruddin’s art acquisitions parallel his good works … Prince Sadruddin’s pictures and objects are a splendid harvest, chosen with both his heart and mind … the choices all reflect developments in his own life.

Reminded all too often through his work of humanity’s suffering, Prince Sadruddin avoids buying works of art that evoke pain. Visitors to his house are struck by his penchant for the happy and the lyrical. Several of his paintings relate to gardens and flowers. … People, however remain the primary concern at Bellerive, and those paintings, like the guests at Bellerive, are memorable for their expressive originality, whether stately as Shah Jahan, charismatically powerful as Akbar, cleverly masterful as Shah ‘Abbas or positively comical.”

“My first awareness of art from the Islamic world goes back to the library of the Villa Jane-Andrée at Cap d’Antibes, where my parents spent much time before and after the Second World War. It was a musty and dark place. The curtains were often drawn to prevent the Mediterranean sun from bleaching the huge 14th century Mamluk Qur’an which lay open on the rosewood stand, usually at the beginning of ‘Surat-ul-Nas,’ which my father never tired of quoting. I was fascinated by the power of its calligraphic counterpoint, the diacritics and illuminations. Though I could not decipher the text, the burnished pages and their dark corners where the thumb and forefinger had left their mark over the centuries exuded a special mystery which I never forgot. My grandmother, who was the granddaughter of Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar, had left us a large library of Persian books, particularly in Bombay and Poona. The classics of Hafiz, Rumi, Firdausi, Baba Tahir, Omar Khayyam and astrological treatises filled the shelves beside Nasir-i Khusraw, mystical texts by Hallaj and assorted works on the Shiite Imams and Ismailism. Sadly, the Shahnama’s illustrations were mostly 19th century kitsch. Mustachioed faces of Nasiru’d Din Shah and Muzaffaru’d Din Shah peered out of golden lacquered bindings.

… Many years have passed and the world is a different place, but my love of Arab manuscripts and Persian and Indian paintings has never ceased. I am grateful to my wife for putting up with my occasional fits of ‘collector’s dementia,’ especially in the saleroom. It has been a fascinating journey during which the ‘Court of Gayumars’ from Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnama became its Holy Grail, like the flower to which the aged pilgrim is drawn in one of my favourite Mughal pictures by Abu’l Hasan, Emperor Jehangir’s ‘Nadir al-Zaman’ (‘Rarity of the age’).

It is my hope that Princes, Poets & Paladins will spread a timeless message, one befitting the halls of the British Museum.

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Spreading positive inspirations since 2006 (established). Ismailimail is a home of the largest collection of stories from the world of Ismaili Muslims and community. An independent, civil-society initiative, which is voluntarily run by enthusiasts. More details at the About section.